FINALLY BOUND

Dog with Basket finally got bound.  It was color planned by Lucille Festa at Rugs by the Sea in Cape May this past September.

In other news...an acquaintance asked me if I would repair an old rug her grandmother hooked.  Told her I'd have to see the rug first to see how big the repair was and see the type foundation.  Explained that with age burlap gets very brittle and any manipulation of the rug could cause more damage so wouldn't get involved in that.

Tuesday she came over with said rug.  Turns out it was hooked with wool yarn on what appeared to be rug warp.  You can see the areas needing repair in the photo below at the top and to the lower right.  I explained that I use wool fabric and she said she didn't care if it was fabric or yarn, she just wanted to save the rug.

In the photo below you can see I repaired some at the top but the very edge was too fragile to deal with and she said that section was placed under the bed anyway.  Still have to deal with the little empty spot on the lower right.

Seems I successfully repaired that spot using the hanging wool yarn below the rug.  And told her not to pass the word around that I repaired her grandmother's rug as I don't want more offers, lol.

Yesterday I was forced to turn on the heat as it was too cold in the house.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be a normal temp of close to 70 so will turn off the heat and open the windows.  But that too will be short-lived as winter is inevitable. 

Now back to hooking on the Giant Flower.  What is on your frame?

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

S

CALIFORNIA FLASHBACK

As you know my husband and I were from the east coast before he was transferred to the 'left' coast.  While there I worked for Sunset Designs, a needlearts company started by Tom Cundith in the garage of his home.  It developed into a thriving profitable company by the time I moved to San Ramon.  The company was eventually sold but you can still find stitchery kits on eBay today.

In all the years I worked never did we dress up for Halloween during the work day until California.   Driving to work could easily have been a scene equal to that of the Cantina scene of Star Wars. Imagine seeing this elephant behind the wheel.  Californians go bonkers during Halloween and I saw many an odd character driving on the freeway.

Here is one of the Sunset employees dressed as a character from the Carole Burnett show, but can't recall the character's name.

A secretary dressed as a flapper.

A nurse, Geisha and not sure of what the other two were.

Something was quite funny to these gals and I was probably laughing along with them but can't recall why.

This witch must have had a cold as that's a really red nose.

Employees gathering around a cubicle and probably typical of the whole day.

A couple more characters below.  

Lunchtime where we all brought in food to share.

This is me below and guess I went as Hiawatha.

Unidentifiable character to me, but phones need answering when you're at work even during having fun.

Tinkerbell sitting on my boss's lap.  Mike Lacy was the Sales Manager and I was his secretary.

Photo below looks like it was taken in the customer service department.  There were more employees in that department.

Many of the employees used the day as a normal 'casual Friday' attire vs. wild costumes.

A photo of Tom Cundith, the company's founder, having a meeting outside with the employees on a nice day.

Sunset Designs was a wonderful company to work for; they introduced me to 'flex time' where one could take a 2 hour lunch if you worked an hour beyond their work schedule or came in early.  When Gary became really ill, they let me do my secretarial work at home and I'd deliver the work the next day.  That way I was able to be around Gary near the end of his life and still have an income.

Yet am thankful I took it upon myself to move our son and me back to the east coast.  California was fun and entertaining for a while and am so glad not to live there now, just doesn't seem the same from the news I see on TV.  Happy Haunting.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

OLD RUGS

Here are a few rugs you may not have seen.  Actually it is the first time I ever heard of a "ravel rug".  A Shaker ravel rug is done by sewing knitted sections on a foundation then unravelling the unsewn parts.  This one measures 33 x 37, was found in Canterbury, NH but no date provided.

Petite flowers  and leaves mid 20th century so not really considered an antique yet, I don't think.  

A lion hooked late 19th to early 20th century measuring 16 x 28.

An oval floral dated 1900's.

A geometric from the Robert L. Pfannebecker collection.

A horse rug listed on Bidsquare and have no date or dimensions.

Apparently a family rug with everyone's initials and a date of 1893.  Dimensions of rug is 35.5 x 36.5.

I know someone who reads my blog isn't fond of ducks, so sorry about the following rug.  Said to be hooked early 20th century. 

A naïve landscape with dog, no date provided.  Reminds me of a child's drawing.

Sorry there isn't anything breathtaking here for you to see and am hoping there will be more for me to find on the internet for future shows.  Meanwhile, make your own beauty with your hands and wool ~ happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MISC CHIT CHAT

The range was delivered yesterday and I took it on a test run with baked chicken breast.  Interesting was the digital temp/timer/clock alerted me every increase in temp to the designated temperature.  Seems it does take the oven a tad longer to reach optimum temperature and probably does so for the burners.  But I can learn to adapt ~ at least everything works now.

In the past I've purchased an extended warranty on my appliances and chose to not do that this time.  Frankly I never had to call anyone for repairs during the 27 years I had the previous range.  It seemed cheap enough tho at $130 for a 5 year warranty.  I still have a couple days to change my mind but would be interested in what YOU would have done and what you normally do.

Okay, as promised here is an update on the Giant Flower (20.5 x 35).

Must admit I'm getting a little bored with it.  But maybe since I'll be moving onto the leaves and other small colorful flowers it will be more fun.  Below is a picture of the original antique.

In other mundane news...I had the flu shot today and was asked if I wanted the Covid shot and said "No".  Tomorrow I will continue to yank out more vinca minor and it won't be all out during my lifetime.  But at least I'm working on it one section of roots at a time.

And to buy range warranty or not to buy, that is the question.

Praying for those in the wake of hurricane Milton's wrath.  

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

'TIS OCTOBER

We are already one week into October, how is that possible?  This is my favorite month of the year ~ cool nights and warm days, changing colors of leaves, pumpkin spice and everything nice.  The inside of my house is cooler than outside so I've started wearing long sleeve tee shirts and sweatpants.

It won't be long before my gal pal Lauren climbs in her attic to retrieve her Halloween décor and start decorating ~ or perhaps that's already begun.  I used to decorate heavily for all holidays but no longer.  Gave all my Halloween items to a local friend who hosted parties at his house for the event.  Well, I did keep my hooked rugs and the Jack-O-lantern I made so do still have a couple items to put out soon ... maybe.

The Merrie October 31st is a Lori Brechlin design I hooked and the paper mache' Jack is the one I made, as I did the white wool applique pumpkin.

Perhaps in a couple days I'll have some progress to show you on the Giant Flower pattern.  And have nothing else in queue as there's plenty of hours left to finish this one.  But will continue to look for the one which rocks my world, lol. 

Tomorrow the new range will be delivered between 10-2 and hope no other appliances or electronics go bad anytime soon.

God Bless folks in Georgia, North Carolina and now again in Florida.

Saundra

www.woodlanjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

A HAPPY SURPISE

Regular readers know I love homemade soup and make a lot of it during cool weather.  I normally make a big pot as I enjoy leftovers and don't mind  having soup for lunch then again that night for dinner.  There's usually enough for me to freeze 2 meals for later.  This afternoon I pulled a container of soup out of the freezer and checked to see what my dinner would be.  OH BOY!  It is Moroccan Sweet Potato Soup with all the tasty and healthy detox spices.  If you are interested in seeing the recipe you can check it out HERE.  BTW, I didn't use a crock pot, just cooked it on my range top.

When this house was built I made some very bad plant choices, one of which was vinca minor (periwinkle).  For the longest time it seemed it would never grow and now it is out of control.  Weeks ago I started digging it out of the ground along the driveway and worked a little more today but have a lot more to do in order to get it under control.

And because a blog post should have a photo or three, here are a few rugs to show you.  Said to be hooked early 20th century is blocks of images of ships, spinning wheels, flora, etc. 

For feline lovers is a rug with 13 cats hooked on burlap and dated between 1920-40.

The canine folks will enjoy the dog and pup rug and no other information was provided, just the picture from an auction.

And for horse lovers like me, one which seems like a free range mustang; again, no other info provided.

Happy hooking and pray those in North Carolina, Georgia and others devastated by Helene will get major help soon.  I feel guilty sitting here talking about the frozen soup which will be my dinner tonight when those folks don't even have a bed to sleep in or know where their meal or water will come from ~ God less them all.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MISC. CHIT CHAT

I'll start with my displeasure of having to replace an appliance.  Frankly I should be happy the electric range has survived this long.  We built the house in 1997 so it lasted 27 years.  Meanwhile in that time I've had to buy a new refrigerator, washer and dryer, water heater twice, furnace once, heat pump twice so understand I should be grateful this is the first range.  And am thankful my order was placed and delivery scheduled already since there is a longshoreman strike and who knows when I'd get one otherwise.

I've always had coil electric stoves and decided to go for the 'flexible' flat top range this time.  Don't know the difference or survivability between glass and flexible but nothing built these days lasts very long anyway.  But hope I made the correct decision on the range.  Heck, my 2003 van still runs like a top so I'm definitely not getting rid of that.

Anyway, onto the good stuff ~ the dog with basket was started on 9/16 and pulled the last loop this afternoon.  Just 17 days so that might be a record for me; and yes Lauren, it is SMALL at 17.5 x 30 but still a record for moi.  Still needs steaming and binding tho.

Am thankful to Lucille for color planning the rug and she even made suggestions on the directional hooking in areas.  It was fun to not have to make decisions on color choices so was an easy and fun hooking project.

Already I've thrown the giant flower 'plus one' on the frame and will c continue to work on that.  There's a way to go on that one so it will be several days/weeks before I'll be searching for a new project.

NOTE:  Just before leaving for Cape May I received an email from someone who was also leaving for a rug camp.  She said she wanted the pattern when we each returned from camp.  However, I've managed to delete her message and cannot remember her name.  So if you are reading this post and still interested in the pattern send me another email.  Sorry I accidently deleted your message and hope you had a great time at your camp and happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

NEW OLD RUGS

I always find time to search for old rugs on auction sites and found a few I hadn't seen before.  Not saying they weren't around, I just didn't see them.

This rug of bold flowers is quite nice and could be hooked with hand torn.  Given a date of early to mid 19th century.

A deer dated 1900 and measures 23 x 35.5.

Kittens playing, 22 x 34 given a date of early 20th century.

Wish there had been a full frontal photo of this Canadian floral.  Nice mellow colors and dated 1930.

What a cute whimsical rug of a child and chicken.  Hooked early 20th century and the rug measures 21 x 34.

Being sold along with the above rug is Woolie and Tammy, two dogs.

I didn't know the name of the dark dog until seeing the reverse side of the rug.

The rug below cracked me up.  Perhaps the name of this rug should be Lady long-legs or Long Tall Sally.  She may be riding side-saddle but those are some mighty long legs she has.  This would be a fun hook just because of the humor.  And I kinda like the design.

Recently found two Hutchinson style hooked rugs.  In case you can't read it, the script says, "When the Sea is Dark & Drear The Mariner Sees yon Light Appear".  

The other Hutchinson is The Sailors Return.  Neither of which were given dates they were hooked.

Now back to pulling loops on my camp rug.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MORE from CAPE MAY

As you know I was in Lucille Festa's class and had never met Donna Hrkman until Cape May.   I found Donna to be very approachable and happy to share her knowledge.  While I have seen some of Donna's works of art via the internet, there's no comparison to seeing them in person.

All of her rugs have an emotional connection and for me some were more intense than others.  The Painted Lady was an interesting rug.  Years before color photographs some people chose to have them tinted vs. the generic black and white.  So her plan was to replicate that old style photo.  Donna is holding the rug so I could take a photo of the back.  The white wool ends you see tied at the eyes is to keep the loop for the spark in the eyes from coming undone.

The front of that wonderful Painted Lady was painstakingly done as it required her to paint a small section at a time so the dye didn't run into the other color.

The real Helen Keller had no sight or sound but she did still have her sense of smell and touch.  Donna wanted to bring attention to those facts in her hooked piece.  Notice the wording at the top of the rug "Knowledge is love and light and vision".  Donna googled the braille translation for that and hooked it at the bottom.

Christopher Robin and Pooh.

You  may be interested to see the real Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh photo circa 1927.  Look how detailed Donna hooked the sweater.  Well heck, everything!!!  But you can get that detail when you're hooking with dental floss thin wool, lol.

I would love to know more about Red Bird as I'm sure there was a powerful message in this piece too.  But I couldn't monopolize Donna's time forever.

Women's Voices, below, speaks for itself.  We have the right and privilege to vote and that time is coming up again soon.  

Running out of space to display rugs, these three were placed on the wicker seating.  The WWII Soldier is the rug which tugs at Lauren's heart strings.

The Semper Fi rug is the one which does that for me.  I cannot talk about or look at the rug without getting choked up or teary eyed.  Donna hooked it in the shape of a dog tag complete with hole on the right side for the neck chain.

Donna had a few of her steampunk rugs but there was no room for all of them.  This one did make the show, Steampunk Polly.

Years past I would walk the halls of the entire Chalfonte Hotel taking random photos in hopes of capturing a ghost (which didn't happen) or at least a few orbs.  While I didn't roam the halls last year or this year I did notice a few small orbs.  They are hard to see and I've circled them so you will have to tap on the photo and strain your eyes to see them.

Years past they have been much more prominent.  One such great year was 2016 and you can see that blog post HERE.

Hope you enjoyed Donna's rugs as I did.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com